1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a moisture sensor arrangement.
2. Background Information
From European patent disclosure EP 1 236 038 B1, a sensor arrangement is known which has a sensor, such as a capacitive moisture sensor, on the upper side of a first semiconductor substrate. The capacitive moisture sensor includes two interdigital electrodes placed side-by-side and one dielectric measurement layer which changes its capacitance as a function of moisture. The measurement signals generated in this way are further processed in the semiconductor chip and prepared suitably for transmission to a subsequent electronic unit. This reference provides no further information regarding how the semiconductor chip is electrically contacted or how the sensor arrangement is mounted, such as on a circuit board.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,181,966 B2, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a further sensor arrangement which has a sensor, such as a capacitive moisture sensor, on the upper side of a first semiconductor substrate. On the opposite underside of the first semiconductor substrate is a second semiconductor substrate, with a signal processing component disposed on it. The second semiconductor substrate is embodied as a CMOS-ASIC, for instance. An electrically conductive connection between the sensor and the signal processing component is brought about via plated through-holes in the first semiconductor substrate. A disadvantage of this version is that the overall construction of the sensor arrangement requires two semiconductor substrates.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0079649 A1, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, a sensor arrangement is proposed in which a sensor, such as a capacitive moisture sensor with interdigital electrodes, is disposed on one side of a semiconductor substrate. A CMOS signal processing component without its own carrier substrate is disposed on the other side of the semiconductor substrate. Here, as well, the sensor and the CMOS signal processing component are electrically conductively connected to one another via plated through-holes in the semiconductor substrate. No details on how the CMOS signal processing component is embodied can be found in this reference.